Gazed Up at the Stars
by KeybladeDetweiler
Summary: On a visit back to the Land of Departure, Aqua remembers the time she spent with Terra and Ventus.


Aqua sailed through the Lanes Between until she finally came to her destination: the Land of Departure. She landed her Keyblade gilder down gracefully and removed her armor before walking to the center of the forecourt. She looked up the steps to the castle she, Terra, and Ventus called home. It was nighttime; the Master might very well be asleep. It wasn't time for her to report to him anyway, so she didn't bother going inside. Instead she turned and headed for the mountain path where she and the boys usually trained. After a lengthy walk, she was finally able to see the metal targets they practiced on, and the stone table and benches where they would sit, eat, and talk. Terra and Ven were nowhere around; she wasn't expecting to see them here like she usually did. They had run off, and she had not been able to find them since their encounter in Radiant Garden.

Aqua crossed the bridge and ran over to the first of the targets before she started attacking it. When she finished her combo, she thought she heard someone yell out to her.

_"Way to go Aqua!"_

"Ven?!" she turned around, looking for the spirited boy and his unmistakable spiky blonde hair, almost hoping to see him running up the path towards her. He wasn't there.

"I must be going crazy." Aqua sighed, turning back to the target as she lifted up Rainfell and cast Blizzard. The golden target swung around and dropped HP orbs, which she collected despite the fact that she didn't need them.

_"You're getting better at your magic every day, Aqua."_

"Terra?!" Aqua cried as she spun around to face the table and chairs where the young man usually sat and watched her while she trained. He was not there; Aqua chastised herself, she should have known. She sat down on one of the stone chairs and closed her eyes, instantly reminded of a warm day when the three of them had just finished some training and had sat down to lunch. It had only been a week before Terra and Aqua's Mark of Mastery.

_"Terra, you're pushing yourself too hard!" Aqua said, pulling their lunches from the bag she had brought along. "You shouldn't train so intensely."_

_"Aw, don't say that Aqua! He needs to work hard so he can become a Master!" Ventus said, swinging his legs impatiently as he waited for his lunch._

_"Exactly, Ven." Terra said, taking his lunch from Aqua. "If I'm ever going to become a Master, I have to get stronger."_

_"Terra, remember what the Master said. It's about strength of heart, not body." Aqua reminded him as she handed Ven his lunch._

_"I know. This is what? The hundredth time you've reminded me?" he laughed._

_"Maybe it's the hundredth and second time!" Ven laughed._

_"I'm serious! You have to have a strong heart to be a Master. Master Eraqus wants to make sure you understand that, and so do I. You know he wants you to be a Master as much as we do."_

_"Terra'll make it! I know he will!" Ven said before biting into his sandwich._

_"Yeah, and someday you will too Ven." Terra said as he smiled and ruffled the boy's hair._

Aqua sighed as she snapped back to reality. She missed things like that. The simple, everyday things like having lunch together after training. The way things looked now, the next time she crossed paths with her friends, the occasion would not be a happy one.

"Terra, why did you do it?" she asked, looking up at the sky. "If you hadn't left like that…maybe none of this would have ever happened."

She sighed before continuing up to the summit, where the three of them had sat together and watched the meteor shower the night before their Mark of Mastery. Aqua sat down and hung her legs over the edge before looking up at the stars. She closed her eyes and remembered their last night together.

_"Whoa!"_

_"Ven! You hopeless sleepyhead!" Aqua laughed. "You know you should have at least brought a blanket."_

_"But…did I dream that place up?" Ven asked. "It really felt like I'd been there before…looking up at the stars…"_

_Aqua laughed and ruffled his hair. "'Cept you've always lived here with us."_

_"Yeah…I know." He smiled. Ven got up and two of them walked over, sat down at the edge of the cliff, and gazed up at the stars._

_"Hey Aqua," Ven said, turning to look at her._

_"Hm?"_

_"Y'ever wonder what stars are? Where light comes from?"_

_Aqua turned to look back up at the sky. "Hmm…Well, they say-" A voice from behind them finished her sentence. "That every star up there is another world."_

_Aqua and Ven turned around to see their friend Terra standing only a foot away from them._

_"Terra." Aqua said happily._

_"Yep, hard to believe there are so many worlds out there besides our own." Terra said before walking over to them. "The light is their hearts, and it's shining down on us like a million lanterns."_

_As Terra finished, Ven pulled his legs back up from over the edge and looked at his friend with a puzzled expression._

_"What? I don't get it."_

_"In other words, they're just like you Ven."_

_"What does __**that**__ mean?"_

_"You'll find out someday, I'm sure."_

_"I wanna know now!" Ven whined._

_"You're too young to know now."_

_"Quit treating me like a kid!"_

_Aqua burst out giggling. "Hey, what are you laughing at?" Terra asked her sternly as he and Ven turned to look at her._

_"I can't help it. You two would make the weirdest brothers."_

_"Huh?!" the two of them wondered before they began laughing along with her._

Aqua pulled her Wayfinder from her pocket and held it to her chest.

"Ven…Terra…I'll find you. We'll be happy again."

She gazed up at the stars again and closed her eyes once more.

"I promise."


End file.
